Presently, people are highly health-conscious, and physical measurement apparatus such as scales, blood pressure monitors, body composition meters, and passometers are widely used not only in medical institutions but also in homes. In order to control physical conditions properly, it is preferable for each person to check daily changes in physical conditions by him- or herself by conducting measurement using those physical measurement apparatus on a daily basis.
For example, a health care program has been proposed, which includes the steps of transmitting measurement data obtained by a user by measuring his or her weight using a scale to a television or a different type of digital apparatus every day, storing the received measurement data at the television with the date and time of measurement, and displaying the data in the form of a graph on a display screen when the user wishes to see it (see JP-A-2006-246230 (Patent Document 1)). The user can check changes in information concerning his or her physical condition such as the weight from the graph displayed on the screen. Further, the user may be motivated by checking the graph to continue the measurement the next day and afterwards.
Instead of wired communication such as wired USB, radio communication utilizing a wireless network or the like may be conveniently used as means for communication between the physical measurement apparatus and the digital apparatus. For example, Continua standard that is a radio communications standard for health-care apparatus has been formulated by Continua Health Alliance which is promoting standardization of connection compatibility between physical measurement apparatus and digital apparatus.
Instead of recording measurement data using a household digital apparatus such as a television, the data may be sent to an external server through a network such as the internet to have the data managed by the server. A user can look at daily measurement data in the form of a graph by accessing the server from the household digital apparatus such as a television.
In order to control one's physical condition properly, it is important to conduct measurement using a physical measurement apparatus every day. However, most users of physical measurement apparatus tend to neglect the measurement sometimes, whereas the users watch television programs substantially every day as if it were a daily routine. A wide variety of television programs showing news, sports, dramas, talk shows, etc. are broadcast every day. Watching television is a fun, and a television can be easily turned on through a substantially unconscious action of a user. On the contrary, a physical measurement apparatus is used for only one purpose, i.e., the measurement of physical conditions, and measuring activities themselves are not attractive. When a user forgets to conduct measurement, it is difficult for the user to remember the task unless urged by someone.